Many thanks

We can be thankful, for sure, that the hurricane season has gone by and the next big weather events will probably only involve challenges with snow and ice.

My experience is that we usually keep our power after winter storms. It's the fall events, hurricanes, early snows and nor'easters, that claim the most power outage victims. Let's hope that holds true this winter.

We can be thankful the election is over.

It's encouraging that in the post-election world there is talk of compromise on both ends of the political spectrum.

And even if we go over the fiscal cliff, a new Congress gets seated in January and will negotiate with a confident president who never has to be re-elected again.

We can be thankful that the country is so full of happy marriages.

I can only assume that if the head of the Central Intelligence Agency can't pull off a secret affair, not many other people can either.

It must be that adultery is pretty uncommon, since it seems so hard to get away with it in the age of the Internet. Just ask a recently retired Connecticut weather man.

In New London, we can be thankful that Police Chief Margaret Ackley is so dedicated to the job that she stayed on at her post through Hurricane Sandy, even after being hit in the head with a window. She put an ice pack on her head and soldiered on.

I know some cynical thinkers suggest this is a ploy for the chief to make some new financial claim against the city. But the fact that she stayed on the job after being hit would seem to belie the notion of a significant medical claim in the offing.

Those who don't live in Groton can be thankful this week they don't have a government that invested millions of dollars in a cable television system and then sold it, practically on eBay, for a fire sale price of $150,000.

It's a good thing Groton didn't go into a business that doesn't have a history of being lucrative. Imagine how much more they might have lost.

In New London, residents can be thankful their dysfunctional government hasn't gone away, even with a new mayoral system in place.

How many places give voters a chance to recall at referendum a budget for money that has already been spent. Not only that, but New London voters at the next election next year may get to reject two budgets, the one already spent and the new one being prepared, at the same time they get to vote for or against some of the city officials responsible.

We can be thankful that the craziness of Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping may have reached a peak. It seems like some sense is coming to the tradition.

We can be thankful that the skating rinks have been set up in downtown New London and downtown Westerly. Can spring be far behind if skating has begun?

We can be thankful that the month's biggest obituary was for a junk food.

Everyone in Connecticut can be thankful today we don't have a new senator in Washington with a boat named Sexy Bitch.